I'm bringing back one of my favorite blog post themes after a fairly long hiatus, because lots of commercials these days deserve to be analyzed, criticized, and demonized (that's a little Walt "Clyde" Frazier, for y'all) and I'm a little tired of blogging about serious topics like homeownership. I'll get back to that theme later this week, but I finally have some time to watch terrible TV and of course I also paid attention to the advertisements. So without further ado... boys, let's get to it (to it)...
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Commercial #1: Another Case of Playing Dumbly to Gender
As someone who very strongly feels that the country is transitioning toward a post-gender mentality (by this I mean that fewer and fewer topics, decisions, and emotions are "only for women" or "only for men"), I am routinely dismayed when commercials exist for products that strike me as intuitively gender-neutral, but are pitched in such a gender-specific way that my fiancee and I can both watch the commercial and get pissed off for completely different reasons.
I am going to ignore the feminist argument with regard to this sausage commercial, because I'm not here to make the feminist argument (it's ripe for the taking, though). I am here, however, to argue that making a commercial like this is retarded, business-wise. Imagine that you are tasked with the responsibility to pitch sausage. Sausage is so easy to sell, it's almost as easy as bacon. It's delicious, salty, and applies to lots of recipes. Hell, I'm eating sausage right now, as I type this.
Chicken sausage (the product being marketed here) is probably easier to sell than regular sausage, because many people like to eat healthy foods that remind them of not-so-healthy food. Now, both men and women like sausage - in fact, if you look at men who live alone, I bet almost all of them eat sausage. So the first problem here is that focusing so much on the woman is counterproductive and limiting.
Above and beyond this, the second problem with the ad is that it's confusing. What's the "get" here? Is it the patronizing servitude of the wife (to be honest, I still can't tell whether it's ironic or not)? Is it the bizarre dance lesson interlude, which makes absolutely no sense because only the woman is dancing and she is wearing 1980's style fitness clothing? Is the commercial designed for women to like it, or men, or both, or neither?
I seriously cannot tell whether the intent of this ad is "Check us out, we're quirky and unique, you'll love our products" or instead whether they're trying to pull a Sterling Cooper ad circa 1961 with a basket of kisses or some shit. Did anyone run this commercial through a focus group, and if so, why didn't they ask people if they were confused by the commercial? Because I can't understand what's going on here, and - given that I work in market research - if I can't understand what's going on, does anyone else?
I think the problem is that too much is going on here. Commonly when I watch a commercial for something that isn't "designed" for me, I'm able to at least rationalize that someone out there exists for whom this commercial is relevant. (You can call this the Sarah Palin effect, but for commercials, if you'd like.) But chicken sausage is something I'd buy, and I'm not sure, in the case of the above commercial, that anyone in the world (or, at least anyone I know) could find it even remotely tolerable.
Grade: F
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Commercial #2: A Matter of Timing
Previously I tore apart a commercial that did too much. Sometimes a commercial can err on the side of doing too little - witness the above commercial for Worx energy drink. (Oddly enough, another very similar product, 5-Hour Energy, has the exact same problem I'm about to describe in its own commercials, which makes me wonder whether the two products are owned by the same company.)
Time is obviously a very limited entity in a 30- or 40-second commercial, so to maximize the short amount of time you have, timing is important. Most commercials get right to the action, with barely a second of silent context (if that) before the dialogue begins. This commercial is, obviously, quite different. It's 40 seconds long and only has four scenes - each showing a person who needs an energy boost explaining why the product "Worx" for them.
It's not ineffective from a content perspective, but there is at least two seconds after each cut before the individual starts to speak. Silence in a commercial these days is rare - we watch TV in an era where it's perfectly appropriate for an actress to scream at the top of their lungs for ten seconds in the middle of a cell phone commercial - but all of these seconds of silence in the middle cost the Worx company money. People viewing the ad will get distracted, because after all, they aren't paying attention in the first place (unless they're crazy, like me), and they don't need that much context to get the point. Or, alternatively, Worx could have gotten rid of the long pauses between cuts and saved about ten seconds (and about 25% of their advertising budget, if my math is correct).
Interestingly enough, the actors in the commercials are fairly low key. I know a few people who use these products, and they're all pretty amped up people in the first place. I'm surprised by the casting decision, but ultimately not that surprised since a commercial with such glaring problems in the first place had to have been designed cheaply, and in house.
Grade: D
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Commercial #3: Brainssssssssssssss....
Don't get me wrong. It's not that I feel zany commercials can't work... if the timing is appropriate and the content is funny, zaniness can work very well. I submit for the approval of the Midnight Society the above commercial, for the Toshiba Satellite laptop computer. In it, an engineer/decision maker decides that the laptop needs to have a tough casing just in case a future broken laptop leads to a national power blackout and subsequent zombie apocalypse.
Students of zombie apocalypses know very well that drinking spoiled milk does not directly lead to the spread of the virus Solanum (which we all know is scientifically proven to transmit a hunger for brains). However, this doesn't really matter because zombies are awesome, and also zombies these days are pretty mainstream. (Hell, the CDC recently posted a legitimate zombie apocalypse scenario online - officially - as a satiric play to get people interested in disaster preparedness.) It's about time that someone in Ad Kingdom capitalized on this in a unique and interesting way.
The point of any advertisement should be to present an engaging, relevant message that is unique and believable. You'll win engaging points if your commercial is hilarious, and this commercial is also daring (I mean, look at the zombie still frame above, it's a little disheartening to look at). But also, it's not hard to get the point of the commercial, and the message is quite clear - Toshiba thinks of everything. In my opinion this commercial excels, due to its attention grabbing nature, comical and engaging content, and excellent timing.
Grade: A
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